Gettysburg Address 21st Century

[matthew mckeon]

As we all know, the Gettysburg Address clocks in at little more than two minutes, making it one of the shorter American political speeches.

I was at the new Visitor Center at Gettysburg, saw the intro film and went to the museum. Although the Address is referenced several times, none of the hyperactive info presentations at the museum or in the film recited the speech in one session. They gave bits or pieces with chunks of other stuff in between.

It became(for me) a gauge of the attention span of Americans in the 21st century. Even with plenty of visual imagery to go with in, the exhibit designers deemed that Americans are incapable of focusing on this instantly recognizable piece of oratory for two minutes.

Indeed, the irony used to be that Lincoln stated that the "world would little note, nor long remember what is said here, but it can never forget what they did here." The irony being the speech is remembered, while the details of the battle fade into obscurity.

Well, that little problem is fixed by a solemn baritone intoning, "...never forget what they did here." Fade out.

We saw a piece of film not associated with the park called "Fields of Freedom" playing at the theatre next to our hotel. Thirty reenactors try to recreate Pickett's Charge. Hollywood style violence as heroic Confederates knock over Union defenders like ninepins, but then inexplictably lose. "never forget what they did here..."
is recited. Hey buddy, Lincoln refering to the Union guys, the ones making a new birth of freedom, and keeping the government of the people from perishing, not the Rebs!

Thus the meaning of the war is shorn away, and replaced by a bunch of cool battle scenes.

 

[ole]

Well, Michael, we are all incredibly stupid and incapable of really understanding. So we must be fed marshmallows.

ole

 

[matthew mckeon]

I don't think people are incredibly stupid. But they get treated like they are.

At the Canadian National Park of Fortress Louisbourg there are "reflection rooms." Spaces with comforable chairs and a few publications, where you sit and think about what you have been seeing, and perhaps discuss it with your companions. At the VC in Gettysburg, the atmosphere is more like a video arcade, with a few artifacts embedded in the noise and imagery like raisins in a big scone.

The battlefield itself is silent and serene, except(last week) for a steady breeze. A silent bronze infantryman, the mounted general, mute cannon. Plenty of time for reflection there, I guess.

The battles were noisy, crowded, chaotic, and frightening. The preserved fields the opposite.

 

[matthew mckeon]

What are people gathering from walking the battlefield? A homage to heroism? A tragedy?

 

[Dred]

Peaceful serenity. A stark contrast to the carnage and mayhem. A beautiful landscape broken by bloodshed and horror. When I go, I sit and imagine the waves of soldiers washing over me. I can sit at a single spot on a battlefield for hours in the silence, listening to the cries of the soldiers echo on the breeze. That is why I go, and what I gather. I can't speak for others. I feel that to most of these tourists, Gettysburg is to the war what Freebird is to rock and roll. The one song everybody knows, and severely overplayed. Are they really there to learn? Or simply to say "How horrible" and then get back into their big RVs and get on with the rest of their vacation?

 

[Freddy]

I teach in the Juvenile Justice system.You should try teaching teenagers of today, many have a very short attention span. Coupled with many who are two or more grades below their supposed reading level and some who are illiterate it is very difficult. While some can do the old fashioned read the section and answer the review questions for next class most cannot either do it well or at all. Instead we read the section aloud and stop after several paragraphs and discuss the main points and then move on. The next class they work in pairs to answer the review questions which we then discuss. Lecturing and note taking is for short periods only with notes projected on the wall. Have to say that is not the way I was taught US History. I am slower in coverage but I do try to reach every student. The exceptional student has problems with this approach. To satisfy the few I encounter I will assign more work in quantity in and difficulty. At this time we are studying 18th century reforms and we just finished the anti-slavery movement. I showed them the film, A Woman Called Moses, Harriet Tubman's runaway newspaper ad, and a primary source story of the Underground Railroad by a Quaker running a station on it.

 

[matthew mckeon]

Freddy, its possible I'm teaching in the room next to yours, your description sounds so familiar.

The "audience" at Gettysburg is not disaffected high schoolers, but families, lots of adults, all paying good money to come to the battlefield.

 

[whitworth]

Most things today

is attempting to get, near achieving, the quality of the local television newscasts.

And for many, my previous comment might go over a lot of heads.

 

[gary]

Well, Michael, we are all incredibly stupid and incapable of really understanding. So we must be fed marshmallows.

ole

Matthew makes an excellent observation about sound bites and the short attention span of the modern American. As for Ole's remark, I'm old enough to prefer Cracker-Jack with a real toy.

 

[whitworth]

Reader; not Visitor

I'd probably rank up there as a reader of a very large number of books on the Civil War, with the least number of visits to a Civil War battlefield.

I've never been too enthusiastic about visiting use-to-be battlefields. I've never gotten much battlefield out of a landscaped park. Just as soon look at a topographical map to get an idea of the battle.

The last site I visited, was fairly by accident. I rode by a Civil War marker. I parked and read the sign. To me it was significant. No battle of record. It was the place the general had taken his corps that night, on the way to battle.
There had been a grain mill there, a stream, and a small dam.
It was a place to find water, nothing more, nothing less. An important place; a place for water for the soldiers and especially for the artillery horses and wagon train mules. Horses and mules need lots of water compared to a soldier.